Rays Take Two of Three from Kingsport

The Kingsport Mets dropped a hard-fought series to the Princeton Rays two games to one over the past three days in Princeton, West Virginia.
The K-Mets got the series started off on the right foot with an 8-4 victory on Wednesday evening.
Jose Butto picked up the win, improving to 2-0 on the season. The Cumana, Venezuela
Native didn't have his best stuff, but he battled and got through five innings and held the Rays to just three runs.
Ivan Jean, Christian Tripp, and Andrew Mitchell combined to throw the final four frames, just allowing one run.
Trailing 1-0, the Mets offense tallied four runs in the third, with Guillermo Granadillo, Gavin Garay, and Mark Vientos tallying RBI-singles.
Garay and Vientos continued their big nights, with back-to-back home runs in the fifth, and Domingo Martinez homered in the eighth to provide all the insurance the Mets' pen would need.
The Rays evened the series Thursday with a 6-4 win.
The Rays struck early and often, scoring in four of the first five innings to open up a 5-1 lead. The lone run for Kingsport came off a RBI-single by Jarred Kelenic.
However, The Mets wouldn't fold and scored three in the seventh on RBI-singles by Yoel Romero and Luis Santana to cut the deficit to just one.
Unfortunately for Kingsport, Tampa Bay prospect Wander Franco was able to get a run back in the bottom of the seventh on a RBI-single to push the Kingsport deficit to two.
The Mets would get the leadoff man on in both the eighth and the ninth, but were unable to score, dropping their first game of the year to Princeton.
Game three was a disappointing end to the set for Kingsport, as the Rays scored five times in the eighth to come from behind for a 5-3 win.
The Mets had built a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the eighth on the backs of great pitching performances by starter Nate Peden and reliever Allan Winans, and clutch RBIs by Guillermo Granadillo, Gavin Garay, and Shervyn Newton, the latter of which came on a homer in the eighth.
However, it wasn't enough as the Rays sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs in the eighth inning. The big blows came in the form of a Grant Witherspoon three-run home run and Osmy Gregorio go-ahead RBI-triple.
Kingsport now travels to Bristol for a three-game set against the Pirates starting tomorrow night. The Mets will be back in Kingsport Tuesday evening for the opener of a three-game set against the Danville Braves. All three games in the series will start at 6:30.